A.

EXPLAIN

THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF SELF

Socrates: Know Yourself

- He was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning
about the self.
- He considers man from the point of view of his inner life.
- “Know yourself,” was his famous line that tells each man to bring his inner
self to light.
- The core of Socratic ethics is the concept of virtue and knowledge as the
source of all wisdom. Virtue is the deepest and most basic propensity of
man.
- For him, every man is composed of body and soul, this means that every
human person is dualistic, that is, he is composed pf two important aspects
of personhood.

Plato: The Ideal Self, the Perfect Self

- He believes that man was omniscient or all-knowing before he came to be
born into this world. With his separation from the paradise of truth and
knowledge and his long exile on earth, he forgot most of the knowledge he
had.
- Plato explained that man in this life should imitate his former self, more
specifically, he should live a life of virtue in which that exists is truly human
perfection.
- Plato identified that there are three components of the soul: the rational
soul (reason and intellect), the spirited soul (emotions), and the
appetitive soul (desires). He stresses that justice in the human person can
only be achieved if the three parts of the soul are working pleasantly with
one another to make the self-ideal and perfect.

Immanuel Kant: Respect for Self

- Kant emphasizes that every man is thus an end in himself and should never
be treated merely as a means - as per the order of the Creator and the
natural order of things.
- “Respect others as you would respect yourself,” is the rule in the plain
dictum of reason and justice.
- He stresses that a person should not be used as a tool, instrument, or device
to accomplish another’s private ends, therefore Kant sees that all men are
persons gifted with the same basic rights and should treat each other as
equals.
 René Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”
- The Father of Modern Philosophy conceived of the human person as having a
body and a mind.
- His famous principle was “cogito ergo sum” which means “I think,
therefore I am.” He discusses that the only thing that one cannot doubt is
the existence of the self, for even if one doubts oneself that only proves that
there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and therefore, that cannot be
doubted.
- Descartes states that although the mind and the body are independent of
each other and serve their own function, man must use his own mind and
thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment, and develop himself.

John Locke: Personal Identity (Self)

- According to Locke personal identity (the self) is a matter of psychological
continuity and it is founded on consciousness (memory), and not on the
substance of either the soul or the body.
- Personal identity is the concept of oneself that evolves over the course of an
individual’s life.

David Hume: the Self is the Bundle Theory of Mind

- Hume is a Scottish philosopher and an empiricist who believes that one can
know only what comes from the senses and experiences.
- Experiences can all be categorized into two:

o Impressions - the basic objects of experience or sensation and they

are from the core of the human thoughts.
o Ideas – copies of impressions, they are not as lively and vivid as our
impressions.

- Hume and Steinberg 1992 discussed that the self is nothing else but a bundle
or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an
inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.
- He considered that the self is not an entity over and beyond the physical
body.

THE CHRISTIAN OR BIBLICAL VIEW OF SELF

St. Augustine: Love and Justice as the Foundation of Individual Self

- St. Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature. An aspect of man
dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the
Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality.
 - He believes that a virtuous life is the dynamism of love. It is a continuous
following of and turning towards love while a good life is a constant turning
away from love.

St. Thomas Aquinas: Matter and Form as Composition of Man

- Aquinas distinguished that man is composed of two parts:

o Matter (hyle in Greek) – the common stuff that makes up everything

in the universe.
o Form (morphe in Greek) – the essence of a substance or thing.

- He asserts that just as in Aristotle, the soul is what animates the body; it is
what makes us humans.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF SELF

Sigmund Freud: The Psychoanalytic Theory of Self

- Freud’s affirms that the human psyche (personality) is structured into three
parts (tripartite): the id, ego, and superego. These three structures are
systems and not physical parts of the brain.
Parts of Personality
1. Id (internal desires)
 Internal drives or instinctive drives
 It consists of the body’s primitive biological drives and urges
which are concerned only with achieving pleasure and self-
satisfaction.
2. Ego (reality)
 The rational part of the personality.
 The “I” part gives the person the sense of identity.
3. Superego (conscience)
 The critical aspect of the personality.
 It concerned with morals, percepts, standards, and ideas.

Freudian Stages of Psychosexual Development

1. Oral (from birth – end of the first year)

 The mouth becomes part of the body through which
gratification is secured.
2. Anal (from 2 – 3 years)
 Expulsive phase
  The child derives the feelings of pleasure or pain from
defecating.
 It covers the toilet-training period.
3. Phallic ( from 3 – 6 years)
 The child gets curious about his/her genitals and becomes
attached to the parent of the opposite sex.
 Oedipus Complex – the attraction of a boy to his
mother
 Electra Complex – the attraction of a girl to her
father
4. Latency (from 10 – 12 years)
 Sexual motivations presumably recede in importance as the
child becomes preoccupied with developing skills and other
activities.
5. Genital (after puberty)
 The deepest feelings of pleasure presumably come from
heterosexual relations.

Erik Erikson: The Psychosocial Stages of Self-development

- Erikson formulated eight major stages of development. These eight stages
have a unique developmental task and simultaneously presenting the
individual with a crisis person must overcome.
- Erikson was engrossed in how social interaction and relationships played a
role in the development of a person.

Erickson’s Eight (8) Psychosocial Stages of Self-Development

Conflict/ Important Life Relationship

Age Outcome
Crisis Events With
Trust vs. Infancy
Feeding Maternal Hope
Mistrust (birth to 18 months)
Autonomy
Early Childhood
vs. Shame Toilet Training Paternal Will
(2 to 3 years)
and Doubt
Initiative Preschool
Exploration Family Purpose
vs. Guilt (3 to 5 years)
Industry vs. School Age School/
School Confidence
Inferiority (6 to 11 years) Neighborhood
Identity vs.
Adolescence Social
Role Peer Group Fidelity
(12 to 18 years) Relationships
Confusion
Intimacy Young Adulthood Relationships Partners in Love
 friendship/
vs.
(19 to 40 years) Sex/
Isolation
Competition
Generativit
Middle Adulthood Work and
y vs. Partner Care
(40 to 65 years) Parenthood
Stagnation
Ego
Maturity Reflection on
Integrity Mankind Wisdom
(65 to death) Life
vs. Despair

B. ELABORATE
This illustration represents the interconnection of
the three views about self. Each view plays a big role
in identifying self. These three concepts and nature
of self give answers to all the questions “Who am
I?”

The psychological view of self

Psychological
View discusses the individual understand
the concept of self from knowing the
self literally to realizing the deeper
context of it.
Christian/
Biblical View Meanwhile, the Christian/ Biblical
view of self shows how people
commit themselves to Almighty to
have a foundation of his/ her
Philosophical
View better self.

The last is the Philosophical view

which shows the development of
every individual and what are the consequences of this if the person did not
acquire the development he/she must obtain.